Excess Capacity, Part II

If more out-of-towners used the MAX, we might not need a new downtown hotel, and the Power & Light District might have better numbers.

Before reading this post, I suggest you scroll down and glance at "Undeveloped Redevelopment". There's some photos you should see. This location in Columbus Park is not unique. I can show you many tracts of empty land in areas originally developed before the Depression. These tracts illustrate the point I'm trying to make better than any number of words that I could write.

We have too much capacity that we're not using. Yet we think the solution to every problem is dedicated resources. Our poorest citizens don't have easy access to health food choices. Obviously, we need to bribe a national grocery store chain to build in one of those neighborhoods and we'll do it with the very tax money we're currently using to educate their children. We're behind the rest of the country on transit. Obviously, we need the most expensive solution: light rail. We're loosing conventions to other cities. Obviously, we need a new 1000 room hotel.

Bullshit. All of it.

I was recently looking at a summary of  Mike Sanders' commuter rail plan. It does exactly what I'm proposing. In his own words we can build a commuter rail line "utilizing existing, out of service or abandoned rail or right of way for more than 70% of the region-wide system." This brings the cost of such a system down to $7.85 million a mile. Compare that to $58.2 million a mile for light rail. (I have to wonder if Chastain is driven more by an unconscious need for vindication than he is for a desire to help he city.)

Speaking of the downtown hotel, a few months ago, Mark Forsythe's now defunct blog suggested that a better use of taxpayer money might be to build a modern streetcar line down Main. His reasoning went something like this. Allegedly we need 1000 additional hotel rooms. There are 1400 hotel rooms in the Crown Center area. This would get us our additional hotel space and finally get us into fixed guideway transit. How many sales pitches do you know of for new taxes or Federal grants that can claim multiple purposes?

The city asked for, but did not get, stimulus fund for such a system. I have the distinct impression City Hall didn't put as much effort into that request as they have for the downtown hotel. I don't know the rules for the awarding of stimulus funds, but I have to ask if throwing Forsythe's hotel idea into the pot would have gotten us that funding or at least helped.

This discussion isn't merely academic. It's a fact that the MAX line already runs between the Convention Center complex and Crown Center. The Convention Center South stop, which is a quarter of a mile from the entrances to Municipal Auditorium and and Bartle Hall, has the single largest waiting kiosk on the entire Metro system. There's another MAX stop katty-corner from the front of Municipal Auditorium. Having ridden the MAX into downtown on numerous weekday mornings, it's my impression that there are no convention goers staying the Crown Center area.

Incidentally, if the two stops were combined at 14th and Wyandotte, riders would have more chances to see the Sprint Center and the Power & Light District from the bus. Mathematically, this only shaves 400 feet off the walk from the MAX line to either of those destinations. Psychologically, this is almost as good as altering the lines to stop right in front of them. Maybe, if more out-of-towners used the MAX, we might not need a new downtown hotel, and the Power & Light District might have better numbers.